Champions Online

As the groundhog pops up to see his shadow, so too do the devs of Champions Online pop up with their monthly UNTIL Field Report, dishing out the plans and proposed future updates for the game. This month's report is rather lengthy and kicks off with a promise about upcoming "ambitious" re-itemization of all items and rewards in Champions.

Currently in testing and on deck for the near future is a '90s Iron Age costume set, alerts, zone balancing, and a look at why them women folk walk so dang funny (apparently arms and legs are moving out of sync on female characters). Players also have a new travel power -- Distortion Acrobatics -- and specialization trees to look forward to.

There's also some good information in the report as to why some features and concerns have yet to move from low to high priority, such as the "lukewarm" feedback of team duels and the difficulties of balancing XP gifting.

As the next update for Champions Online nears, Cryptic promises a more in-depth series of dev diaries detailing the changes.

Although Champions Online's most recent State of the Game has been out for a while, I sort of avoided talking about it in previous editions of Behind the Mask. The main reason was because I really wanted to cover the new powersets. However, that doesn't mean I don't have any comments on it.

If you look at the history of the State of the Game and Ask Cryptic entries, they fluctuate quite a bit between good information and annoying PR. The January SOTG was full of annoying PR, and it bothered me greatly. It felt dishonest. I saw a lot of hype on little things that no one wanted and very little on what people really wanted.

This week, I'm going to talk about the real state of the game: where CO is and where it needs to go. I'll also talk about some of the future stuff that Robobo mentioned in the SOTG. Is it good or bad? We'll see!

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This week on Behind the Mask, we're going to take an in-depth look at Champions Online's new Earth powerset. It took me quite a while to review Wind, and Earth is relatively new. Why the time disparity?

The real answer is that I looked at Wind long before last week, but I didn't really find anything fun or exciting at a first look. Earth is a lot different. Earth has a lot of potential for combining powers between the set; it can Stagger enemies and then exploit that Stagger for damage or bonus effects. Because a lot of the Earth tricks eat your Stagger stacks, you have to choose between keeping Stagger on your targets for the debuff or eating it for the bonus power effects. On top of that, it has the first viable Brick archetype heal, making the Mountain the second reliable Archetype tank. Earth is a lot of fun.

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A year after making the switch to decaf, er, free-to-play, Champions Online is livelier than ever. To celebrate the super-powered boost that F2P gave, Cryptic Studios is hosting special events both in and out of the game.

From today through the end of the month, players can enjoy a hefty 20% discount on anything in the C-Store (excluding grab bags). So if you've been eying that special outfit or archetype, now might be the time to nab it.

If you're not looking to spend any money but don't mind partying with the stars, there's plenty of fun to go around. For the rest of the anniversary event, characters can fly through the levels due to a double XP boost at their backs, courtesy of Witchcraft. Another hero, The Mountain, will be selling Halloween and Winter Gift Bags with in-game currency. Mr. The Mountain also has a special mission for those who want to earn his trademarked Mountain Costume pieces.

Champions Online has a new protector in town, and he's about as subtle as Gregor Clegane (though quite a bit nicer). The game's newest archetype is called The Mountain, and Cryptic has revealed all the vitals on Champions' official website.

The Mountain is "an embodiment of the rocks and earth that surround us, standing firm in the face of [his] foes," and Cryptic says that the archetype boasts knock-downs and considerable damage-soaking abilities.

The devs have also provided a handy power listing that details everything from 1 to 40, as well as a few concept phrases -- like rock golem, earth elemental, and primordial entity -- to give you an idea what you're in for if you make a Mountain.

Champions Online released two powersets recently, and I finally got time to sit down and crunch numbers on the new Wind powers. Wind has been live for a few weeks now, and the Squall archetype uses its powers to push enemies around the battlefield and rock the damage charts.

Wind has been one of the most frequently requested powersets since Heavy Weapons hit the game, and I was excited to play around with the set. Does the Wind powerset meet the expectations players had for it? This week on Behind the Mask, I set out to find the answer to that question.

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Recently, I've run into some troubling developments while roleplaying in Champions Online. I've encountered quite a few "troll characters" who seem designed soley to irritate and annoy other people. The characters in question are often played by otherwise-good roleplayers, which makes me wonder: Why would someone do this?

This is as much a topic for Storyboard as it is for Behind the Mask, but because it is very common among Champions Online roleplayers, I feel it deserves extra consideration. This article isn't going to finger-point at bad roleplayers and say why they're wrong. Rather, the point of this column is to inform good roleplayers about elements of RP that can quickly ruin people's fun.

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Last week on Behind the Mask, we talked about the basic dimensional structure of the Champions universe and its parallels with the Kabballah. This week, we take you a bit deeper into the mythos of Champions Online. We'll take a look at the Astral Plane, or Yetzirah, and the key places that exist there. I'll be focusing heavily on the Quaternion -- a series of four planar zones within the Lower Astral Plane that embody most fantasy elements critical to the Champions Universe.

If you have ever wondered about demons and angels, this is a must-read. The Vibora Bay story arc paints a very unusual picture about the nature of these planes, and we'll be covering just what Heaven and Hell are in respect to that story. We'll also be covering faeries, elves, dwarves, and other popular fantasy elements. If you're planning on creating a roleplaying character who fits into a fantasy subtype, travels through dimensions, or just uses magic, this information will be critical to you!

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One of the exciting things about writing about Champions Online is that there is a huge amount of lore and backstory behind the game. Although Behind the Mask has a definite focus on concrete game information (that's just how I roll), the lore is always something I'm excited to cover. It offers a look into Champions that can't be experienced with just the online game.

This week we're going to look at alternate dimensions in the Champions universe. I was going to take a more indepth look at the background behind the war between Heaven and Hell, but unfortunately there is so much information that paints necessary frameworks for those story elements. It's unfortunate, but the information I have to go over this week is pretty crazy stuff.

Before you go through this, you may want to check out some of my other lore articles, including my magic lore article and my general lore primer. I do restate all the necessary stuff here, but having a broader understanding of what's going on can do nothing but help. A lot of the information here is from The Mystic World sourcebook, but there's also a fair bit of stuff cobbled together from ingame lore and some other sourcebooks. Definitely check them out if you want more information on these subjects.

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2011 was an odd duck of a year for MMO news. A huge chunk of the year felt devoid of significant releases, but that was mitigated somewhat by the major launches of RIFT and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Titles got shoved back to 2012 or beyond, MMOs that we thought never would go free-to-play did, and the industry continually surprised us with revelations, ideas, and controversy.

So in my last Perfect Ten of 2011, I put together the 10 most significant MMO stories of the year. Ten seems like an awfully small number for such a great big field, so I had the rest of the staff members chime in with their nominations just to make sure I wasn't too off-base with any of these.

It was a whopper of a year, and Massively was there for all of it -- the ups, the downs, the queues, and the QQs. It's time to wrap it up with a pretty bow and dedicate it to the history museum!

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What new this week in MMOs? You'll have to watch This Week in MMO to find out. Funny how that works, huh? Host Gary Gannon is joined by Mike Schaffnit and Jasmine Hruschak for the traditional news roundtable, and boy is there a lot to talk about.

Topics include Star Wars: The Old Republic's launch and post-launch reactions, Cryptic's SWTOR ripoffs homages, and TERA's endgame political system. The heretofore single-player Fable franchise gets a mention as well, due to Microsoft's curious job posting that seeks an experienced MMO programmer. Join the trio for all this and more at the Gamebreaker website.

Now that The Old Republic has hit the shelves, it seems like everyone has something to say about it. Cryptic seems to acknowledge it in its own unusual way: by lampshading it.

Enter the Unleashed, Champions Online's newest free archetype. No, you're not misreading me here; the Unleashed is not a gold archetype. If you make an account right now, you can play the Unleashed from the moment you enter the character select screen, without spending a dime. Since it's the ninth free archetype, you'd think that he'd be a stable, bread-and-butter class. However, the Unleashed is nothing but. His wackiness approaches the Impulse, but where the Impulse is kind of ineffectual, the Unleashed is deadly efficient.

Interested in a sword-wielding knight who slings force blasts? Hit the jump and we'll see what Cryptic's take on a Jedi can do.

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[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Thanks to everyone who entered!]

On the tenth day of giveaways, Perfect World gave to me... ten grab bag items!
On the ninth day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... nine SWG mementos!
On the eighth day of giveaways, Enjin gave to me... eight guild-wide gifts!
On the seventh day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me... seven years of memories!
On the sixth day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... six retail packs!
On the fifth day of giveaways, Trion gave to me... five subscription codes!
On the fourth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... four pet items!
On the third day of giveaways, Wargaming.net gave to me... three premium years!
On the second day of giveaways, BioWare gave to me... two warring factions!
On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP!

Day 10 of Massively's 12 Days of Giveaways is all about Perfect World Entertainment. The developers pulled out all the stops, giving us a total of 10 different items from Star Trek Online, Champions Online, Rusty Hearts, and Perfect World International. Two winners will receive 1,000 Cryptic Points for Star Trek Online, and two more will receive 10 days of gold membership status in Champions Online. Three Rusty Hearts fans will walk away with a gift package containing items for triple XP as well as instant weapon and armor enchants. Finally, if you are a fan of Perfect World International, we've got three codes for a very rare Giant Bunny pet.

Ready to enter? Check the contest rules below for eligibility, hit the comment button, and tell us which prize you'd like and why you should win. Enter by the deadline of tomorrow, December 23rd, at 6:00 p.m. EST, and good luck!

Champions Online is on a roll this week with its bevy of new archetypes to check out. First it was the Star Wars-inspired Unleashed archetype, and today Cryptic announced the arrival of its newest hero, The Squall.

As its name suggests, the Squall is a weather-based superhero who takes on the role of an avenger. By wrapping the awesome forces of nature around his little pinky, the Squall can whip up hurricanes, slap down tornadoes, and throw a big ball o' wind at enemies that are really irking him. The archetype primarily focuses on mid- and long-range attacks to repel and disorient enemies, but he suffers when bad guys get up close and personal.

The Squall archetype can be unlocked across an entire player's account for 920 Cryptic Points.